Augustus Pitt Rivers

Augustus Pitt Rivers
FRS FSA FRAI
Born
Augustus Henry Lane Fox

(1827-04-14)14 April 1827
Bramham cum Oglethorpe, Wetherby, Yorkshire, UK
Died4 May 1900(1900-05-04) (aged 73)
Rushmore Estate, Wiltshire, UK
NationalityEnglish
Scientific career
FieldsEthnology, archaeology
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1845–1882
RankLieutenant General
Battles / warsCrimean War

Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers FRS FSA FRAI (14 April 1827 – 4 May 1900) was an English officer in the British Army, ethnologist, and archaeologist.[1] He was noted for innovations in archaeological methodology, and in the museum display of archaeological and ethnological collections. His international collection of about 22,000 objects was the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford while his collection of English archaeology from the area around Stonehenge forms the basis of the collection at The Salisbury Museum in Wiltshire.[2]

Throughout most of his life he used the surname Lane Fox, under which his early archaeological reports are published. In 1880 he adopted the Pitt Rivers name on inheriting from Lord Rivers (a cousin) an estate of more than 32,000 acres in Cranborne Chase.[3]

His family name is often spelled as "Pitt-Rivers".[4] His middle name is sometimes spelled as "Lane-Fox".[5][6]

  1. ^ "Excavating Pitt-Rivers project". Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  2. ^ Green (2014).
  3. ^ Bowden, Mark (1991). "Reviewed work: Pitt Rivers. The Life and Archaeological Work of Lieutenant-General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, DCL, FRS, FSA, Mark Bowden". Journal of Field Archaeology. 21 (2). Cambridge University: 249–251. doi:10.2307/529871. ISBN 0-521-400775. JSTOR 529871.
  4. ^ Spelling as "Pitt-Rivers" e.g. in Tylor 1901, Green 2014, "RPR", Excavating Pitt-Rivers.
  5. ^ Spelling as "Lane-Fox" e.g. in Chisholm (1911) and in Pitt-Rivers (1906) – The Evolution of Culture.
  6. ^ See also: "What's in a name? Or a hyphen?". web.prm.ox.ac.uk. Rethinking Pitt-Rivers. May 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2020.